Easter

2002
Colour photo print
180 x 125 cm

Easter

Just like Midsummer, Easter is an intricate ode to Tea Mäkipää’s home country, its nature, people and folk. It is a moral tale that relates pagan origins – their unchallenged, partly inexplicable yet never meaningless religion of nature and its appropriation by similarly meaningful Christian celebrations – to contemporary holiday customs. Easter, the most venerable and important of Christian celebrations, nearly coincides with the vernal equinox, which simplified the transition of a pagan tradition into the new religion. The sun as a purveyor of light and a fountain of fertility was praised and thanked in pagan tradition by means of spring celebrations and Easter bonfires. The increasing light, the snowmelt and milder climate at the end of March did not only announce the coming of springtime, but the rebirth of nature and life were synonymous with the opening of the hunting season for men and animals alike. When the bear woke from his half-sleep and left his winter camp, Man knew what he had to do. After the hunt, the skis were taken off, the prey was prepared and consumed over a communal campfire. Ancient Finnish artefacts teach us that the bear, as the “king of animals”, was the object of a religious cult. Part of the ritual was the re-enactment of hunting scenes – called “peijaiset” in Finnish. In this role-playing, a man clad in the bears fur played the part of the animal, whose virtuous and courageous fight against his foe was thus honoured. Such one-day celebrations are a living tradition in Finland.